Istvan Bethlen

Istvan Bethlen (8 October 1874-5 October 1946) was Prime Minister of Hungary from 14 April 1921 to 24 August 1931, succeeding Pal Teleki and preceding Gyula Karolyi.

Biography
Istvan Bethlen was born in Gernyeszeg, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary (now Gornesti, Romania) on 8 October 1874. Bethlen was from an aristocratic family, and he was first elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1901. He was a strong counter-revolutionary, and he helped to support Admiral Miklos Horthy's activities in deposing Bela Kun before becoming Prime Minister in 1921. He believed in the need to preserve feudal aristocratic privileges, and he ended land redistribution. He gained the support of the Catholic Church by giving it substantial control over education, and he confirmed his political position through merging the popular smallholders' party with his own Christian National Union Party. He also reintroduced the open ballot in the county districts in order to restore landowner control over the vote of their tenants, and he later received the support of the army by allowing it to ignore osme of the restrictions imposed upon it by the Treaty of Trianon. He tried hard to promote modern agricultural and industrial techniques and forein investment, and his regime came unstuck as a result of the Great Depression with the collapse of production and exports followed by a 1931 banking crisis. He resigned in 1931 in the face of growing unrest, and he hid from the German troops as they occupied the country in 1944. He was discovered by the Soviet Red Army forces who followed, and he was taken to Moscow, where he died in prison in 1946.